Issue - meetings

Outline Application (all matters reserved except access): Construction of a secure 24 hour truck stop facility for up to 200 HGVs incorporating fuel station; amenity building of up to 1100 sqm; creation of a new access to A20 via roundabout; landscaping and other associated works – Application supported by an Environmental Impact Assessment

Outline Application (all matters reserved except access): Construction of a secure 24 hour truck stop facility for up to 200 HGVs incorporating fuel station; amenity building of up to 1100 sqm; creation of a new access to A20 via roundabout; landscaping and other associated works – Application supported by an Environmental Impact Assessment

It was proposed by Cllr Roud, seconded by Cllr Banks that the application be approved on the grounds that very special circumstances could be demonstrated to outweigh the harm the proposed development would cause to the Green Belt and the landscape setting of the Kent Downs National Landscape Area on the basis of (1) the national need for lorry parking facilities on/near the Strategic Road Network in accordance with the recommendations from Department for Transport Circular 01/2022 that the maximum distance between motorway facilities providing HGV parking should be no more than 14 miles and the proposed development being situated in a location to meet the requirement; and (2) precedents of truck stops developed elsewhere in Green Belt and AONB.  This motion was defeated.

RESOLVED:  That outline planning permission be REFUSED for the following reasons:

1.         The proposal would constitute inappropriate development, harmful by definition, with a widespread and significant adverse loss of spatial and visual openness. It would further conflict with the purposes of including land within the Green Belt, by encroaching into the countryside, and no very special circumstances have been demonstrated to clearly outweigh this harm, in conflict with policy CP3 of the Tonbridge and Malling Core Strategy and paragraphs 142, 143, 152, 153, 154 and 155 of the National Planning Policy Framework.

2.         The development would harmfully erode the rural character and appearance of the area, and cause significant harm to the landscape setting of the Kent Downs National Landscape Area through the introduction of substantial areas of built form, hardstanding and artificial lighting, in conflict with policy CP7 and CP24 of the Tonbridge and Malling Core Strategy, policy SQ1 of the Managing Development and the Environment Development Plan Document, paragraphs 182 and 135 of the National Planning Policy Framework, and policies SD1, SD2, SD8, and MMP2 of the Kent Downs AONB Management plan.

[Speakers: Ms Jessica Hampson (on behalf of the alliance of Wrotham, Platt, Borough Green, Addington and Stansted Parish Councils), Mr Josh Nelson and Ms Nicola Stonebank (members of the public) and Ms Jess Lockwood (on behalf of the Applicant) addressed the Committee in person]